BUDGET BUFFET

11.20.12

Food Stamps Surge for Thanksgiving

Joe Raedle

More Thanksgiving dinners will be purchased this year using food stamps than ever before. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 42.2 million Americans will be on food stamps when Thursday rolls around. For perspective, that’s equal to roughly the populations of California and Connecticut combined. That’s a 70 percent increase since 2007, and the cost to feed all of those people hit a record $72 billion last year. According to the Food Stamp Challenge, the budget of a person on food stamps is $1.25 per meal.